The present invention relates to the crimping of textile fibers.
One conventional technique for crimping textile fibers, especially synthetic fibers, involves advancing the fibers, or tow, into a stuffer box which resists the rate of egress of the tow from the box. The tow is advanced into the box by means of a pair of motor-driven crimper rolls which define therebetween a nip through which the tow is advanced. In order to restrain the tow from wandering out of the intended travel path as the tow passes through the nip, a pair of cheek plates, or crimper disks, are positioned on opposite sides of the rolls. The cheek plates, which can be stationary or rotatably driven, include front faces which are pushed against the sides of the crimper rolls and are thus subject to considerable wear.
In order to reduce the rate of wear of stationary cheek plates, it has been heretofore proposed to lubricate the cheek plates by forcing a lubricating liquid through holes in the cheek plates (e.g., see Baken U.S. Pat. No. 3,662,439 issued May 16, 1972). A system such as that may provide for a lubricating of the front faces of the cheek plates, but does not materially alleviate other problems involved, such as heat build-ups occurring in the fibers and exterior portions of the cheek plates, and the wearing of the outer edge portions of the tow. Furthermore, the lubricant itself may tend to form unwanted deposits on the equipment. In addition, the need to conduct fluid through the holes in the cheek plates renders it difficult to employ such an arrangement in connection with cheek plates of the rotatable type.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to minimize or obviate problems of the type discussed above.
Another object is to minimize the wearing of cheek plates, of both the stationary and rotating types.
A further object is to maximize the cooling of the tow cheek plates.
An additional object is to prevent deposits from building up on the equipment.
Yet another object is to minimize wear of the outer edges of the tow.